Potholes the size of a five gallon bucket....

June 21, 2012

Up at 6:50 - we decided we could sleep in today, and that was as late as we made it! 

We headed out - planning on making it to Beaver Creek today - and let me just say that I had no idea what a bad road looked like until our journey today... lol.  Beginning just before Destruction Bay, the road started to look like a back road up in the hills - first there were tons of pot holes, and they were scattered all over the various parts of the road, so it was hard to miss them - although Charlie did an amazing job.  Next, there are places in the road where the road has dipped, due to the dirt freezing that then melting.  The dirt here is from volcanic ash, and sand, and it moves after it freezes, and let me tell you - boy, it moves!  So we were either swerving around in the road trying to avoid the pot holes, or we were bouncing around going over the swaybacked road - it was sort of like a carnival ride. : )  oh, and then lets throw in lots of miles and breaks of gravel and dust - with signs warning you of the "extreme dust" caused by the gravel..... and at another point the road was simply gone and they were having to build it back - so there were stacks of dirt about 4 feet high on each side as we drove thru on a dirt packed section....

Lets just say that we were both ready to be off the road - so we found a government park named Lake Creek and pulled in - it was very nice, a little rugged, but very nice.  We stopped around 3:30 and had dinner cooked and cleaned up with by 6:00.  Charlie built a fire and we roasted some hot dogs and had slaw and salsa with them.  It turned out to be a great combination.  ( and the fire starter/kindling pieces that Buz gave us before we left have been a life saver - we can start a fire no matter the weather!)  thanks Buz!

The skeeters were out in full force, and they are bigger than any I have ever seen.  They would probably eat Arkansas mosquitoes for lunch!  We sprayed ourselves though and they stayed away - so that was very nice. 

The water heater wasn't working, Charlie and I worked on it a bit, both of us coming up with ideas, but Charlie actually working on it, : ) and figured it out!  We had come thru so much dust, it had clogged it up.

We both cleaned windows and washed off the vehicles a bit, they certainly needed it and both of us will need a shower after all the insect spray and the cleaning, glad we got the hot water heater fixed. ...

Charlie also worked on the light a bit more, he has narrowed down the problem to a bulb, and we will have to replace the whole piece, so we will look for one as we go along. That Charlie is certainly very good at figuring out things, and fixing things.  A very helpful skill to have on this trip.

I got to do some reading tonight, something we have not had time for before this, and that was a nice treat. 

Tomorrow we head for Tok, Ak!  I think we are currently about 60 miles from the border, so we should pass over into Alaska fairly early in the morning!!!